Curtains, drapes, tapestries and wall-decor fabrics and window-treatment fabrics of various type are generally supported on rods, bars or like hardware by hooks, rings or like attachment devices which must be carefully and laboriously removed from and inserted into the fabric article when the article is to be cleaned and rehung.
The cleaning operation may involve drycleaning in which the fabric is agitated in a solvent, or water washing in which it is agitated in contact with water, generally in the presence of a detergent.
Because of the sensitivity of the fabric and the desire to segregate the fabric from others during the washing operation, it is a common practice, especially in commercial cleaning establishments to provide openwork bags or sacks into which the fabric articles are placed and in which the articles are cleaned, i.e. agitated in contact with the cleaning liquid.
To prevent the articles from escaping from such bags or sacks, the latter were usually provided at the mouths with drawstrings or cords which, when tied, constricted the mouth of the sack or bag sufficiently.
Efforts to use conventional washing bags of this type, composed of fabric of a net or reticulate pattern, for the cleaning of draperies with hooks and like attachments affixed thereto have proved to be ineffective because the movement of such elements within the sack caused damage to the article to be cleaned and to the sack itself, raising the possibility of damage to articles in other sacks in the cleaning machine.
Consequently, notwithstanding the protective advantage afforded by the use of cleaning sacks of the type described, the washing of drapery articles of the type described invariably involved the necessity of first removing the hooks or other attachment elements therefrom and the replacement of these elements subsequent to cleaning.